Hope on the horizon: Recent advances in brain cancer immunotherapy

First published on the Steem blockchain by @remlaps on May 04, 2024. View the original post.

---

Modern immunotherapy is making strides to improve the odds for brain cancer patients.

Many people may remember that Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy was diagnosed with brain cancer in May, 2008, and died from it about 15 months later, in August of 2009. For me, Kennedy's cancer progression was one of those news cycles that intersected with the personal life, because my mother was diagnosed with brain cancer around the same time, in the summer of 2009, and she died from it half a year later, in January of 2010.

One of my lasting memories about Kennedy's death is the pessimistic tone of commentary from media personalities at the time. As they commented on the almost hopeless odds that Kennedy was facing, I was - of course - thinking about how their commentary applied to my own mother. And it turned out that they were right. My mom tried surgical treatment and chemotherapy, but in the end it didn't seem to make much difference. In a mere few months, she went from a healthy and vibrant retiree traveling around the country to a wheelchair bound cancer patient, and even that stage passed quickly. In a few more months, she was gone at the relatively young age of 61.

Image by Bing Creator

As a result of this experience, it always catches my attention when I come across news about advances in the treatment of brain cancer. This week, my RSS feed contained some news of this nature. The articles, New Vaccine For Deadly Brain Cancer Shows Incredible Results in Clinical Trial and Brain cancer in children is notoriously hard to treat – a new mRNA cancer vaccine triggers an attack from within describe some promising results from a clinical trial of a new vaccine for brain cancer. Both of those articles are commentaries on newly published research from Cell, RNA aggregates harness the danger response for potent cancer immunotherapy.

As with the treatment covered in my recent article, Revolutionary Canine Cancer Vaccine Shows Promising Results: A Ray of Hope for Man's Best Friend, the product is called a vaccine, but it is only used after a cancer diagnosis. This is explained in Nature's YouTube video, below:

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for March 26, 2020

MIT researchers submit a $100 open source ventilator for FDA approval; Chinese company offers facial recognition for people wearing masks; A new AI system approaches 100% accuracy on cancer diagnoses; A Cold-War era submarine wreck is located off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii; and a Steem post argues that surveillance may be useful for COVID-19 in the short term, but it poses long term risks

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for March 24, 2020

A TED talk gives the research history of the so-called "sex chromosomes"; Scientific theories behind the deja vu experience; A new attack tricks artificial intelligence systems into mischaracterizing images; Cancer research retracted after 14 years and more than 900 citations; and a Steem essay describes a doctor's efforts to prepare for coronavirus in Bangladesh

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for March 16, 2020

5G wireless is driving up the cost of smartphones; Doctors in Israel removed an entire lung from a patient, eliminated all cancerous cells, then reattached the lung; Whisper app for secret sharing revealed individuals' locations, ages, and other details; Advice for people who are working from home because of the coronavirus; and a Steem post describing a youtube video where chickens were hatched from store-bought eggs

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for March 6, 2020

A TED talk by a security researcher gives a rundown on "stalkerware"; A Youtube video addresses Peto's Paradox - the surprising observation that larger animals are less likely to get cancer; Microsoft announces a free tier of its Cosmos DB NoSQL database; Twitter is testing fleets, transient tweets that expire after 24 hours; Brave Browser announces a state of the art privacy enhancement; and a Steem essay discusses the nature, causes, and treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for March 2, 2020

American consumers get gun-shy after data breaches; The Brave browser adds feature to do Wayback Machine look-ups for missing web pages; Ex-Googler, Eric Schmidt, argues for massive investment in emerging technologies and intellectual capital; Another safety and feasibility trial finds that CRISPR gene editing is safe for cancer therapies; and a Steem post with photos of the ATLAS comet (Comet C/2019 Y4)

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for February 17, 2020

An argument that cancer screening is more about business than health, and that in 90 years, the only substantial progress at reducing cancer has been the decline of smoking; Quantum entanglement has been accomplished through 30 miles of fiber; Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) forced to postpone key-signing ceremony after being locked out of a safe; An argument against productivity metrics that ignore quality; and a Steem report on a controversial Tweet by Richard Dawkins on the topic of eugenics

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for February 11, 2020

Background radiation linked to longer life and lower cancer mortality; AI surveillance ramping up to keep tabs on the coronavirus; Surprising diversity revealed by ancient skeletons in Mexico; Satellite photos of Wuhan before and after the coronavirus quarantine; and a Steem essay discussing the security risks of "smart buildings"

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for February 10, 2020

Trials to reduce aging-related diseases move from mice to dogs; A TED talk describing the use of African bees to keep people and elephants from coming into conflict; The first US trial using CRISPR gene editing to treat cancer finds that the technique is safe; An argument that a quick retraction of an Open Access preprint shows science working as it should; and a Steem essay reports that music with a fast, strong, steady beat is best at enhancing exercise>br>

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for January 30, 2020

LocalBitcoins reportedly suspended accounts without warning in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia; Researchers report an immune discovery that may treat many or all forms of cancer; The difficulty of documenting non-reproducible systems; A TED talk argues that humans and AI systems should work together on solving problems; and a Steem post reporting that the coronavirus has been cultured in a lab

---

Curating the Internet: Science and technology digest for January 13, 2020

Artificial intelligence brings improvement to cancer surgeries; The average American body temperature has been dropping since the 1860s; Researchers find the preservation mechanism for Britain's oldest brain; Cancer research in dogs is producing knowledge for dogs and humans; and a Steem post with a video of a shooting star flying through the Northern Lights

---